Travel Medical Insurance

Again from the Clayton Kidnap, Ransom, and Extortion Monitor:

Paraguay, 31 December 2007
A total of 10 kidnapping-for-ransom cases were reported in Paraguay during 2007. Nine of the
10 cases were reported between January and April, and unlike in previous years, most of the
cases took place in the interior of the country. A total of 17 people were kidnapped in the reported
cases. The highest profile cases involved the kidnapping of a Japanese industrialist and his
secretary, and a police officer and his girlfriend. The last reported incident took place on 18
October and involved a female victim who was released two days later. A total ransom amount
of US$680,000 and 25 million Guaranies was paid for all the cases combined. (ultimahora.com,
31 December 2007)

Colombia, 13 January 2008
Six Colombian tourists were kidnapped by armed gunman wearing the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) uniform. According to a regional military commander, the six
abductees were a part of a group of 19 Colombian tourists taking a boat tour of the Atrato
River in Choco department. The group was surrounded by the guerrillas while their boat
was on shore. The official stated that the rebels separated out people who hailed from cities
of central Colombia, including a Norwegian professor and his Colombian biologist wife, an
engineering student, a teacher, a businessman and hotel owner, and took them into the forest.
(news.com.au, 14 January 2008)

Nepal, 17 December 2007
A chief executive officer of a paint company was kidnapped for ransom by unidentified gang
members in the Baneshwor area of Kathmandu. The kidnappers, who intercepted the victim’s
vehicle as he was driving home, forced both the businessman and his driver into their vehicle.
The driver was beaten and released shortly after the abduction. The kidnappers called the
victim’s family and demanded a ransom of Rs 50 million. Family members later stated that
the ransom demand was dropped to Rs 10 million and that the kidnappers spoke Gujarati
and Marathi, which are Indian provincial languages. Police officials investigating the case
suspect that the businessman was kidnapped by local criminals following the instructions
of an organized Indian criminal group, as the ransom calls originated from Mumbai, India.
(nepalnewsmobile.com, 19 December 2007)

India, 31 December 2007
Unidentified militants kidnapped an assistant engineer of the Manipur State Education
Department in Imphal. The militants reportedly abducted the official at gunpoint on 15 December
from a location near his office, but a First Information Report (FIR) was filed with the police
only a few days ago. Meanwhile, several social organizations released statements demanding
the immediate release of the official. A sit-in protest was also held by staff members of the
education department to protest the abduction and press for the victim’s immediate release.
(timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 31 December 2007)

Here are some stories from around the globe that we found interesting. They were found in the Clayton KR&E Monitor.

Ethiopia, 20 March 2007: Rebels from northern Ethiopia who claimed responsibility for abducting five Europeans this month say they will kidnap foreigners who venture into their territory, Eritrean state media reported. A separatist group fighting for greater autonomy of the barren Afar region straddling Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti made its first direct claim for the kidnapping of five Europeans. The chairperson of the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Union Front (ARDUF) said foreigners traveling to northern Ethiopia need permission from the group or else they risk being kidnapped. There has been no word on the fate of eight Ethiopians who vanished while traveling with the Europeans. (news24.com, 21 March 2007)

Somalia, 2 April 2007: Somali pirates armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades hijacked an Indian cargo ship for ransom as it was preparing to dock at Mogadishu’s port. The vessel was delivering nearly 900 tons of cargo when approximately 10 pirates in a speedboat overpowered its 14 crew members. The vessel, carrying various goods, including cooking oil, second hand clothing and rice, has sailed for Puntland, a semiautonomous state in northeastern Somalia from where pirates often operate. According to a Kenyan Seafarers Assistance Program official, the crew managed to call and report the hijacking. The official stated that the pirates have already made a demand for ransom. (msnbc.msn.com, 4 April 2007)

Malaysia, 28 March 2007: Police officers arrested a gang of kidnappers in Kuala Lumpur’s Cheras suburb, who had abducted a businessman from his Ketumbar Hill Condominium home on 21 March. The kidnappers burst into the 49-year-old businessman’s house, attacked his son, stole RM70,000 and forced him into a waiting car. The kidnappers then took him to a safe house in Bukit Mewah where he was handcuffed and held captive. The victim’s son contacted police officials after receiving a ransom call from the kidnappers. Guided by the police, he negotiated for seven hours and managed to bring the sum down to RM15, 000 and agreed on a drop-off location for the ransom in Cheras town. Police officials tailed the kidnappers back to their hideout from there. A police raid team rescued the businessman and arrested four men in the house and five other people — four men and a woman — nearby. Police officers seized various items, including weapons and a forged police authority card. A police official stated that initial investigations indicate the victim knew his kidnappers but declined to elaborate when asked for a motive for the crime. (thestar.com.my, 29 March 2007)

If you’d like to learn about your options for insuring this growing risk, please contact our special risk department at 1-800-423-8496 x19.

In a recent article posted on the website for WBAY in Green Bay, WI, traveler Mary Jo Dean describes a 2004 cruise gone bad: “We were supposed to fly out of Chicago,” she said.

“We realized we wouldn’t get out. When we got to Puerto Rico at 5 a.m., our luggage had not arrived.” Luckily travel agent Kathy LeBlanc had informed Mary Jo of the necessity of carrying travel insurance. “The airlines have changed. They do not have to provide lodging. They do not have to provide meals for stranded passengers,” Le Blanc said. “Travel insurance, on the other hand, does have to provide all of that. It covers delays, cancellations, and even lost baggage.”

Before your next trip, make sure you talk to Global Underwriters about covering your travel-related risks.

When traveling internationally, it’s important to make sure you have adequate medical evacuation benefits. Lots of travel insurance plans will have medical evacuation coverage, but often it is not enough.

According to a recent article in the Miami Herald

Medical evacuation is expensive and is not covered by ordinary health insurance. From a cruise ship in the Caribbean back to a city in the United States, the cost may run $10,000-$15,000 or more. From remote locales or in particularly complicated cases, the cost can exceed $100,000. That’s why travel insurance that offers evacuation coverage is a good idea, as the Bradys learned.

In this article, Mark Brady suffered a seizure just an hour and a half into a cruise, but the boat wasn’t able to turn around. The cost of bringing him back to a hospital in Ft. Lauderdale. The cost: $16,600. Fortunately the Bradys had medical evacuation coverage.

For those of you not yet familiar with medical evacuation insurance, I’ll explain. Imagine you are on an exotic island or touring a third world country and experienced a medical emergency. Chances are, you would prefer to go to a US or European hospital with all the latest technology to see to your condition. You would need to be flown in an “air ambulance” with competent medical staff, which can be extremely expensive. Medical Evacuation insurance will cover this expense up to a maximum amount outlined in the policy.

Travel medical insurance plans from Global Underwriters feature $100,000 in medical evacuation coverage.

medical evacuation

We just received this month’s Kidnap & Random and Extortion Monitor from Clayton Consultants. It offers a monthly digest of media-recorded incidents of extortion and kidnapping from around the globe. It contained seventeen pages of reports from the past few weeks.

If you or your employees travel internationally you need to be aware that Kidnap & Ransom and Extortion are real threats. Here are three excerpts from the Clayton KRE Monitor:

Palestinian Authority, 3 January 2007: Palestinian security services reportedly urged foreign nationals — especially European and U.S. nationals — to leave the Gaza Strip out of fear of further kidnappings. A senior security official said Palestinian security agencies had received alerts of possible kidnappings. The warning came as police forces continue their search for a Peruvian photographer who was kidnapped by unknown militants in Gaza on 1 January. Abductions of foreigners have been fairly common in the impoverished territory, with 20 foreign nationals abducted over the past year. In most cases, the abductors used the hostages as bargaining chips for concessions from the Palestinian Authority, and the detainees were released unharmed within days. (aljazeera.net, 3 January 2007)

Ireland, 12 January 2007: Police officials on both sides of the Irish border are hunting for a gang involved in a kidnapping. Two masked men, one armed, held hostage the manager of a U.S. fast food outlet located in Londonderry, at a house in Muff, county of Donegal, while another staffer was forced to go to their workplace in Derry’s Waterside area and collect a ransom. Police stated that the amount of money delivered to the abductors was small. The manager was released on the Donegal side of the border at about 2100 local time. Police officials said they were working with the Police Services of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and a number of searches were being conducted along the border. (news.bbc.co.uk, 12 January 2007)

Iraq, 17 December 2006: Concerns are growing for the four South African security guards abducted in Iraq a week ago, reportedly by criminals posing as policemen at a roadblock north of Baghdad. Negotiations between the guards’ employer, Safenet Security Service, and their abductors seem to be deadlocked because the kidnappers want a larger ransom than Safenet is prepared to pay. The four South Africans are believed to be former policemen, but some security sources say one of them is a former member of 1 Parachute Battalion. The sources say the men are from Durban, Pretoria, Orkney and Cape Town. Ronnie Mamoepa, the spokesperson for the department of foreign affairs, said this week that Safenet was negotiating directly with the kidnappers but the government was monitoring developments through its diplomats in neighboring Jordan. South Africa has no official representation in Iraq. Some members of the security community are worried that if the kidnappers don’t get their ransom they will hand the men over to a terrorist organization. There have been scores of kidnappings in Iraq since the start of the insurgency, including some by gangs who sell their victims to Islamist groups. (int.iol.co.za, 17 December 2006)

If you’d like to learn about your options for insuring this growing risk, please contact our special risk department at 1-800-423-8496 x19.

According to Mercury News’s Travel Notes, international travel is now the top leisure activity for China’s newly affluent. A survey of 604 Chinese Millionaires found that Australia was the top rated destination, followed by France then the United States.

In other China travel news, American Airlines is upgrading its facilities in Tokyo’s Narita International Airport to provide faster connections to other carriers’ flights into China.